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RIMINAL AGGRESSION: BY WHOM 
COMMiriED ? 



" Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.' 



AN INQUIRY 

HY 

EDWARD ATKINSON, LL.D., PH.D., 

BROOKLINE, MASS., FEBRUARY 22, 1899. 



A SEQUEL TO 

I. THE COST OF A NATIONAL CRIME. 
II. THE HELL OF WAR AND ITS PENALTIES. 



SixTU Edition, Makinu Xine Thousand Foir Hundred Copies. 



[Funds are wanted for printing, stamping, and mailing future editions of this 
pamphlet. Price per hundred, two dollars, with express charges. Price per hundred, 
wrapped, stamped and mailed, four dollars. 

Funds are also wanted for printing, stamping, and mailing my first pamphlet, " I. 
The Cost of a National Crime. II. The Hell of War and its Penalties," at the same 
terms. 

Mailing lists arc desired. Remit for single copies of both pamphlets, with postage, 
six cents in postage stamps. 

Address Ed\v.\ri) Atkinson, Box 112, Boston, Mass.] 




£"7/3 

PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION. ./\^l(c 

CRIMINAL AGGRESSION IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 
The Commercial Aspect. 
The remarks of Benjamin Franklin upon the burning of the coast towns of the 
American Colonies in the War of the Revolution may be read in connection with the 
burning and destruction of towns and cities in the Philippine Islands : 

" Britain must certainly be distracted. No tradesman out of Bedlam ever thought 
of increasing the number of his customers by knocking them on the head, or of 
enabling them to pay their debts by burning their houses." 

Missionary Aspect. 
The attention of the clergy and of others who advocate the enforcement of Chris- 
tianity at the point of the bayonet is called to the following extract from a letter of a 
correspondent of the " Evening Post" : 

The country between Marilao and Manila presents a picture of desolation. Smoke la curling 
from hundreds of ash heaps, and the remains of trees and fences torn by shrapnel are to be seen every- 
where. The general appearance of the country is as if it had been swept by a cyclone. The roads are 
strewn with furniture and clothing dropped in flight by the Filipinos. The only persons remaining 
behind are a few aged persons, too infirm to escape. They camp beside the ruins of their former homes 
and beg passers-by for any kind of assistance. The majority of them are living on the generosity of our 
soldiers, who give them portions of their rations. The dogs of the Filipinos cower in the bushes, still 
terrified and barking, while hundreds of pigs are to be seen busily searching for food. 

Bodies of dead Filipinos are stranded in the shallows of the river, or are lying in the jungle 
where they crawied to die, or were left in the wake of the hurriedly retreating army. These bodies give 
forth a horrible stench, but there is no time now to bury them. 

The inhabitants who fled from Marilao and Meycauayan left in such a panic that on the tables 
our soldiers found money and valuables, and in the rooms were trunks containing property of value. 
This was the case in most of the houses deserted. They were not molested by our soldiers, but the 
Chinese, who slip in between the armies, are looting when they can, and have taken possession of sev- 
eral houses, over which they raised Chinese flags, some of which were afterwards torn down. 

An old woman was found hidden in a house at Meycauayan yesterday, just dead, apparently 
from fright and hunger. 

The old woman named in the last paragraph may be cited as one converted in this 
missionary enterprise. 

Sanitary Aspect. 

General Otis reports that only eight to nine per cent, of the army was in hospital 
or on the sick list in March, before the hot season or the aggressive campaign had 
been entered upon. Only ! The navy has lent several naval surgeons to the army to 
assist in the care of the sick and wounded. The medical authorities have ordered that 
all soldiers attacked with dysentery and rheumatism, two of the most common causes 
of disease in the tropics, must be immediately removed from the Philippine Islands, as 
they cannot be cured in that climate. 

Nine per cent, on 40,000 comes to " only " 3,600 sick, to whom may be added over 
1,000 wounded. When the hot and then the wet season, the mahirial air of the jungle, 
and the bad water outside of camp begin to exert their malignant influence, how many 
will then become the victims of the criminal aggression now being directed by Presi- 
dent McKinley, who, having asserted that the responsibility rests with Congress and 
with the American people, now fails to call Congress together, and continues the car- 
nage of the Filipinos and the ghastly sacrifice of American soldiers in a bad cause to 
them repulsive, on his sole responsibility. 

Repolsivb and Ghastly Aspect op Burning .\nd Slaughter. 

Private letters from officers and their wives, from which extracts have been printed, 
coupled with numerous private letters from volunteers in the army which cannot be 
printed without danger to them, have fully disclosed the shocking atrocity now being 
committed in the slaughter of the Filipinos. Their accounts of disease and death also 
convey the truth to the people of this country, while the telegraph is not free, such 
communications being under censorship. 

It does not yet appear by whom the fighting was begun. It does appear, however, 
in the latest reports, that the lines of the Philippine army were forced by troops of the 
United States before any attack of any organized force had been made upon the lines of 
our troops. How this happened may perhaps be explained by the following abstract 
from a private letter from a very acute American observer now in Japan, which was 
written after the army officers who had placed Aguinaldo in command of the Philippine 
forces had been superseded by the general now in chief command : 

" I left before actual fighting began, but I saw a condition of things that was as 
much like war as it could be when war was not ; and now the terrible result of the 
ignorance, incompetence, and unhappy temperament of our Manila commander has 
come. The Administration put the general in command in the way of emphasizing his 
own unfortunate method of managing things. Chiefly is the American direction of affairs 
at Manila to blame for the fact that the insurgents changed from friends to being our 
foes." 

Were this correspondent here his name would carry authority. Not being here I 
cannot give it, but I voucli for his capacity as an observer. 

-._, EDWARD ATKINSON. 

Bbookline, March 31, 1899. \iltt 

N 2 W 



ir> 



iir. 

CRIMINAL AGGRESSION: 

HY WHOM COMMITTED P 

In November, 181)8, a danger became dimly foreseen that this country 
might be committed to acts of criminal aggression which the President Iiad 
denounced in April in his message to Congress giving the reasons wiiy the 
oppressive rule of Spain should be removed by force from tlie Island of Cuba. 

Many persons who had believed and who still believe that tiie rule of Spain 
could have been removed without resort to war, yet when war was declared o-ave 
their suppoi't to the Government and their appi-oval to every measure deemed 
necessary to the conduct of the war. 

A few distrusted the sincerity of the President and anticipated the evil events 
that have ensued. Tlie writer was not then one of tliose wiio shared in the dis- 
trust of the Executive, although he feared the influence of those by whom he 
then believed and still believes the President had been forced to a premature 
and unseasonable exercise of force. Is there not sufficient proof of a combina- 
tion organized for the purpose of criminal aggression which the President had 
denounced, but to which he has for the time submitted ? 

With the purpose of sustaining the President and to aid him in suppressing 
these malignant influences the writer prepared two treatises upon 

I. The Cost of a National Crime. 
II. The Hell of War and its Penalties. 

When the forecast of a deficiency of $150,000,000 in the next fiscal year was 
first published in November the estimate was received with derision by thou<rht- 
less persons. Many times the waiter was asked why the revenues of the tropi(;al 
islands falling into our possession on which Spain had battened should not suffice 
to sustain their government. 

The venal yellow press not only derided this estimate, but attempted to dis- 
credit the writer by gibes and sneers which simply increased the contempt in 
Avhich such papers are held. 

IIow stands the case in February, 1899, four months later? The representa- 
tives of the Government in the House of Representatives now forecast a deficiency 
in the next fiscal year of much greater amount than the writer's guarded estimate, 
while the deficiency of the present year will exceed the estimate of the Secretary 
of the Treasury given in his annual report by at least forty per cent. 

In order to sustain the President in avoiding criminal ao-oression, the writer 
also secured from abroad the ghastly evidence of the penalties of tJie Hell of War 
contained in the second treatise. 

It is not a pleasant duty to prepare this third treatise showing iiow public 
trust has been betrayed and by whom. It will again invoke obloquy and abuse, 
but to any one who was bred in the time when resistance to the national crime of 
slavery brought out similar abuse, and even personal danger, these attacks but 
give support to the opponents of criminal aggression as they did fifty years ao-o 
to the agitation against slavery then represented by Garrison and Sumner, by 
Giddings of Ohio and Hale of New Hampshire, by John Quincy Acjams of Massa- 



1 Note to Third Edition, March 30, 1899. — This warning was suiVicient, and some of the 
grossest measures of excessive appropriations were stopped. Whether the actual appropriations made 
for the conduct of the war will suflice is very doubtful. Time only will suffice to determine the fact. 



4 CRIMINAL AGGRESSION: BY WHOM COMMITTED? 

chusetts, and by Seward of New Yovk. These personal attacks are but evi- 
dence of the tribute that unscrupulous and depraved men have always paid to 
those who have defended the honor and integrity of the nation ; tliis tribute 
was rendered to the men who redeemed it from the crime of slavery, so it 
Avill be to the men who hope and expect now to redeem it from criminal 
aggression. 

It was assumed that President McKinley would avail himself of the oi^ijortu- 
nity given at the dinner of the Home Market Club to announce a positive policy. 
Yet we find in that speech but two positive statements. 

The first is in the following words : " Every present obligation has been met 
and fulfilled in the expulsion of Spanish sovereignty from the islantls." 

The second declaration is in these terms : " No imperial designs lurk in the 
American mind. They are alien to American sentiment, thought, and purpose." 

In these words the President adopts the princiijles of the Anti-Imperialist 
League and justifies all that has been done or said by that league. It becomes 
necessary, however, to review the rest of the speech. Respect for the office of 
President may not release the humblest citizens from the duty of bringing its 
incumbent before the bar of public ojoinion when he transgresses. Having been 
called ujion to address a club of clergymen, I have recast my address to them in 
this treatise. No. 3, under the title, " Criminal Aggression, by Whom Com- 
mitted ? " 

Gentlemen : I was very glad to receive tlae invitation to address members of 
the clergy in this emergency, for it seems to me that a duty has come upon the 
clergy of this countiy corresj^onding to that which led to the protest of the three 
thousand ministers against the crime of slavery a few years before the Civil War 
ensued in which slavery destroyed itself. 

We are in an emergency to-day as serious as that which then threatened 
the life of this nation. The honor of this nation is now compromised by an 
aggressive war of forcible annexation under the lead of a President who attained 
the confidence of this country a short year since by declaring that he then spoke 
not " of forcible annexation, for that, by our code of morality, would be criminal 
aggression." Have we changed our code? If not, who is responsible for the 
criminal aggressions upon and the slaughter of the j^eople of the Philipj^ine 
islands by thousands ? 

I was reading last evening Trevelyan's " History of the American Revolu- 
tion," and I came across this report. In one of the great debates of 1774 Stephen 
Fox, the brother of Charles James Fox, speaking of the condition of afli"airs in 
this country, said: " I rise. Sir, with an utter detestation and abhorrence of the 
present measures. We are either to treat the Americans (read, if you please, 
' Filipinos ') as subjects or as rebels. If we treat them as subjects the bill goes 
too far; if as rebels, it does not go far enough. We have refused to hear the 
parties in their defence, and we are going to destroy their charter (read deprive 
them of their rights) Avithout knowing the constitution of their Government." 
Could a closer parallel be brought between the conditions of 1774 when we were 
the rebels and the conditions of the Filipinos to-day in their resistance to the 
eftbrt to put a foreign rule upon them, in their refusal to be deprived of their 
rights, and in their objection to accept the gospel of peace at the point of the bay- 
onet with the slaughter of thousands under the rapid-fire guns ? 

Now, I propose to deal with this question consecutively. We were driven 
prematurely into a war which may liave been necessary for the removal of Span- 
ish oppression from the Island of Cuba. It is useless now to discuss the question 
whether that war was necessary or not. 



CRIMINAL AGGRESSION: BY WHOM COMMITTED/ 5 



We eiitorecl into wluit one may al least declare was an unseasunal)lo dec- 
laration of war before wc were prepared and at the time when the ntmost 
hazard of the tropical climate was upon us. Hut even if that war was inevitable 
does any one supjjose that the war would have occurred had Lincoln been I'resi- 
dent, who resisted even the moral ])urpose of this country for two years until he 
knew the country would support him in emancipation ? Does any one suppose 
that if he had been the President of the United States any men of the char- 
acter an»I (luality of the jingo Senators could have forced liis liand? Does any 
one suppose that Grant would have sutjmitted to such dictation ? Does any one 
suppose that if Cleveland liad been there, even thouj^h he himself had declared 
that it might become necessary to deal with Cuba by force, he would have 
allowed his hand to bo forced by the venal pressure of the yellow press and its 
Senatorial emissaries to Cuba? Is it not our misfortune to have had in the chair 
of the President of the United States a man of weak and uncertain purpose with- 
out convictions and unequal to the emergency : who, having declared that an act 
of aggression would be a national crime, has trilled with the question ? Did he 
not in his recent apologetic speech before the Home Market Club seek to find a 
way out of the evil conditions into which he has led the country by divesting 
himself of the responsibility and trying to throw it all on the Congress of the 
United States? I think it is time to speak and to speak plainly. William 
McKinley is the President of the United States. He was treated with respect in 
Boston as tlie President of the United States, but it was a great misfortune that 
even the members of the Home Market Club who utterly oppose expansion were 
under such obligation that none were able, owing to the courtesy of the occasion, 
to say one word in resistance to exjjansion or to the apparent policy of the Presi- 
dent. Therefore the President may have returned imder the impression that he 
is sustained in acts of criminal aggression here in Boston when we know that the 
moral sense of the community — the conscience of the community — is being 
aroused day by day against the policy which he represents. 

Let us look a little into the history of this matter. 

In a speech, Dec. 15, 1898, when the President w'as swinging around the 
circle, dealing with audiences from the rear end of a railway train and taking the 
shouts of the crowd as an indication of public sentiment, he reached Atlanta, 
and there he used these words : / 

" That flag has been planted in two hemispheres and there it remains, the 
symbol of liberty and law, of peace and progress. Who will withdraw from the 
people over whom it floats its jirotecting folds ? Who will pull it down ? "' 

If that is not a declaration of imperialism, what is it? 

Who took down the flag in Mexico and gave back to the ^lexicans the control 
of their own aftairs after w^e had made conquest of their country ? There is no 
such word in the President's speech to the Home Market Club. Since the date of 
the Atlanta speech he has had cause to change his tone. Under the brave lead of 
our Senator Hoar, supported by Senators Jones, of Arkansas, and Caffeiy, of 
Louisiana, and by many others too numerous to be named here, it has been made 
apparent that neither the common sense nor the conscience of this country will 
permit criminal aggression. We have failed in defeating cession under the 
treaty because there were many true men who are with the opponents of ex- 
pansion absolutely, who thought it best that the treaty should be sustained in 
oi'der that Sjiain might be divested of any further word to say on this matter. 
The opiJonents of imperialism, of expansion, and of criminal aggression who 
voted for the treaty joined with the opponents of the treaty are a majority of the 
present Senate ; many of them feeling indignant because they have been forced 



6 CRIMINAL AGGRESSION : BY WHOM COMMITTED? 

by the false conditions into which we had been brought by the President to 
accejit the treaty. Thougli tliere are grave dangers growing out of the accept- 
ance of the cession of the Philippines, they are not insurmountable, and when 
the will of the country is exerted, as it is now being manifested, the Executive 
will be compelled to take the country out of the false position in which we now 
are. 

Now then, gentlemen, as to this speech of the President of the United States. 
Is it not an adroit rhetorical evasion of the pending question ? Does it not show 
that he is still waiting to find out what will be popular rather than what will be 
right? Or what will control the future politics of this country rather than what 
will be for the true interest and honor of the nation ? When before in the history 
of this country has a treaty been sent into the Senate of the United States by the 
President without a message giving the views of the Executive, or the grounds 
and reasons on which such a treaty should be sustained ? Was not that evasion 
Number One ? Or rather, was it not one evasion among many ? 

The President says : " Many who were impatient for the conflict a year ago, 
apparently heedless of its larger results, are the first to cry out against the far- 
reaching consequences of their own act." Against whom does he make that insinu- 
ation ? Does he not attempt to put discredit, without naming them, upon Senators 
Avho voted unwillingly for war, unwillingly for the treaty, and who are now^ try- 
ing to avoid the evil consequences of the conditions in which he and his adminis- 
tration have put them ? 

Again the President says : " The evolution of events, which no man could 
conti'ol, has brought these j^roblems upon us. Certain it is that they have not 
come through any fault on our own part." Had there been a man with any 
power of will to direct that evolution it would have been directed as human evo- 
lution may always be — by mental energy, in the right and not in the wrong direc- 
tion. It is easy to quote evolution in evasion of duty ; easy to talk about manifest 
destiny to cover a crime. It is the weak man Avho says " I couldn't help it." 

Again the President says: "In its prosecution and conclusion the great 
majority of our countrymen of every section believed they were fighting in a just 
cause." This it true ; they were fighting in the cause of liberty, and they had 
confidence in the declaration of the President that to let the war go beyond the 
restoration of liberty to an oppressed people would be an act of criminal aggres- 
sion. 

The President says: "The Philipjiines, like Cuba and Porto Rico, were 
intrusted to our hands by the war, and to that great trust, under the providence 
of God, and in the name of human progress and civilization, we are committed." 
Intrusted to our hands ? By whom ? How did we get possession of an area of 
about ten square miles or less which was all there was in the possession of Spain 
and which is all there is to-day in our possession ? We secured it because the 
people trusted us. We found in the Philippine islands an organized army 
which had driven the Spaniards from every part of the islands excejjt one or two 
cities where, through their navy, the Spaniards were enabled to sustain them- 
selves. We called them to our aid, Admiral Dewey jiromoting the return of their 
chosen leader, Aguinaldo, to take the command and aid in the removal of the 
oppression of Spain from that little corner which was all that was riot then in the 
possession of the inhabitants of those islands. That city of Manila and the terri- 
tory within range of our guns have become " intrusted to our hands" with one 
city, Iloilo, since added. All the rest is intrusted to the inhabitants themselves. 
The Island of Luzon possesses large numbers of men of intelligence who have 
proven their caj^acity. It is under a constitution of which Senator Hoar says : 



CRIMINAL AGGRESSION: IIY WHOM coMMITnih 



" There are not ten men on the planet who could liave made one better." They 
have an organized army. They liave rightfully supplii-d themselves witli arms. 
Yet these people who trusted us liave been slauglitered hy thousands by Amerieaii 
troops acting under the orders of I'n^sident McKiidey. 

In apology and excuse for his previous course the I'resitlent says : " Congress 
can declare war, but a higher power decrees its bounds and fixes its relations and 
responsibilities. The President can direct the movements of soldiers upon the 
tield, and the lleets upon the sea, but he cannot foresee the close of such move- 
ments or jirescribe their limits." Perhaps he could not prescril)e tlie limits — tiie 
more reason to count the cost in blood and treasure. The very moment this war 
was entered upon 1 sent to Europe for tiie sick and deatii rates of tiie Hritish 
armies in India, of the French army in the tropics, and of the Dutch army in their 
colonies. In the treatise on the Hell of War may be found the whole ghastly 
record to which for want of foresight we are about to expose the young men of 
this countiy unless we stop this national crime where it is. One example may 
here be given : 

A few years ago France undertook the conquest of Madagascar, ;uid to carry 
Christian civilization to the inhabitants at the point of tiie l)ayonet. They landed 
12,800 troops, men from tlie army and navy, 2,000 of whom were in colonial 
regiments and were acclimated. Madagascar is a healthier island than Luzon, 
not as near the equator. In ten months -1,200 of these men died. The rest were 
so disabled that in one regiment, of which sixty per cent, died, not one single man 
reached the objective point. In Madagascar the French are now trying to main- 
tain troops under a sick and death rate that they are afraid to have published 
even in their own country. 

Again, witness the condition of the white troops in India. There were 
70,000 British troops in India in 1896. In that year the admissions to hospital 
were nearly foui'teen hundred men to each thousand on the average ; that is to 
say, the whole foi-ce admitted once, nearly four hundred twice ; the average term 
of each stay in hospital, thirty-five days. That average includes the health stations 
on the hills. There were 40,000 men on the plains, where it is hot and mostly dry. 
At some of these stations admission to hospitals ranged from 2,000 to 3,400 for 
every thousand men. The conditions in India are not nearly as bad as the 
malarious conditions in the Philippines described by Professor Worcester. la 
such hot climates, where every thought of morality and self-restraint is lost, 550 
in every 1,000 in India, and in some stations 850 and 1,015, are infected with 
venereal diseases, of which the details are given in my treatise on the Hell of 
War. The accounts of the Surgeon-General of the United States have been 
demanded so that the people of this country may learn what the hell of war 
really is even when no shot or shell is fired. 

I claim no more foresight than any other man of common sense, but when 
the dano-er of war was disclosed I sent for these documents and I have secured 
the printing of these details in a Senate document which Senator Lodge trieil to 
stop on the ground of saving the expense of printing treatises by private persons. 
He was obliged to withdraw his objection when Senator Jones, of Arkansas, 
insisted on the record being made. You may contrast, if you please, the elements 
of politics and patriotism in the acts and speeches of the senior and the junior 
Senators of Massachusetts, Choose then who honors and who dishonors the State. 

Ao-ain the President says : " We cannot anticipate or avoid the consequences, 
but we must meet them." No, President McKinley was neither capable of fore- 
seeino" or avoiding the conseijuences of his act. He now declares himself to be 
incapable of meeting the conse(|uences, and attempts to throw the whole Ijurden 
upon the Congi-ess of the Uniteil States. 



8 CRIMINAL AGGRESSION : BY WHOM COMMITTED? 

Again he says : " There was but one alternative, and that was either Spain 
or the United States in the Philijipines." Was thei*e no other alternative? If 
there was no other why did Admiral Dewey bring Aguinaldo back to take the 
lead of the Filipinos ? Why did he accei^t the aid of the organized forces which 
have now invested our army in Manila as it invested it when we were engaged in 
removing the oppressive forces of Spain from there ? Did not Admiral Dewey 
foresee the need of a land force to cooperate with the navy in removing the 
oppression of Spain when he promoted the return of Aguinaldo to INIanila to 
command that force ? Who is yet entitled to pass judgment upon Aguhialdo ? 
Our own officials have promoted his movements and perhaps unwisely made 
promises of support. What if he should prove to be a born leader of men ? 
Who will then be shamed? When shall we know the truth in this matter? 
When will the evidence of United States Consul-General Pratt, of Singapore, and 
of Consul Wildman on this matter belaid before Congress? We have as yet but 
indirect evidence of their interviews with Aguinaldo. What purports to be an 
authentic statement published by a friend and correspondent of Consul-General 
Pratt in Birmingham, Ala., is as follows : 

"Alluding to the fii'st conference, the writer says: 'There were present 
General Emilio Aguinaldo y Femi ; E. Spencer Pratt, Consul-General of the United 
States; Howard H. Bray; J. Leyba, Aguinaldo's private secretary; Colonel 
Marcelo del Pilar; and M. Santos.' 

"During the conference, at whicli Bray acted as interpreter, Aguinaldo 
explained to Consul-General Pratt incidents and objects of tlie late rebellion, and 
described the then disturbed state of the country. He then proceeded to detail 
the nature of the cooperation he would give, in which he, in the event of the 
American forces from the squadron landing and taking possession of Manila, 
would guarantee to maintain order and discijjline among the native troops and 
inhabitants in the same humane way in which he liad hithei'to conducted war, and 
prevent them fi'om committing outi-ages on defenceless Spaniards beyond the 
inevitable in fair and honorable war. 

" He further declared his ability to establish a proper and responsible gov- 
ernment on liberal principles, and would be Avilling to accept the same terms 
for the country as the United States intended giving Cuba. The Consul-General 
of the United States, coinciding with the genei-al views expressed during the dis- 
cussion, placed himself at once in telegraphic communication with Admiral 
Dewey at Hong Kong. As a result, another private interview was arranged at 
the American consular residence, between Aguinaldo, Pratt, Bray, and Leyba. 
As a sequel to this interview, and in response to the urgent request of Admiral 
Dewey, Aguinaldo left Singapore at once for Hong Kong, and accompanied 
Dewey with the fleet to Manila. 

" General Aguinaldo's policy, as clearly stated in his interviews at Singa- 
pore, embraced the independence of the Philippines. American protection 
would be desirable temporarily, on the same lines as that which might there- 
after be instituted in Cuba. The ports of the Philippines would be free to the 
trade of the world, safeguards being enacted against an influx of Chinese aliens 
who would compete with the industrious population of the country. The entire 
fi-eedom of the press would be established, as well as of thought and public meet- 
ings. There would be general religious toleration, and steps would be taken for 
the expulsion of the religious fraternities who had a strong hand on everj' branch 
of the civil administration . 

" These promises were made, as stated, in the interviews with Consul-General 
Pratt at Singapore, telegraphed to Dewey at Hong Kong only a few days before 



CRIMINAL AGGRESSION: BY WHOM COMMITTED? 



the fleet sailed, and Aguinaldo aecni)i|)Miii(Ml ilic llccl ;ii Di-woy's iir:,o'iit nijucst 
on receipt of Pratt's telegrams. Subsequent, events proved tliat Aguinalflo k(!pl 
all of his promises, but the interesting feature of this incident is tliat no ollieial 
amiouncements or publications of tin; facts liavc emanated from tin' (Jovcrnmcnt 
at Washington.'' 

The President says: "The second alternative was that thoy be left to the 
anarchy and chaos of no protectorate at all." The common sense of this country 
will reject that statement. There existed a protectorate capable of protecting 
persons and property. Under that protectorate the Piiiliiipine forces held Iloilo, 
where they committed no looting, no interference with persons or jjroperty, no 
meddling with the foreigners. There tiiey maintained thcnr liglits until we attacked 
them, and then the}^ retired. 

By whom was this attack authorized? What induced the Filipinos tf) re- 
sist the forces of the United States? Who began tliat figiit? As yet we have no 
evidence. Who is responsible? Aguinaldo says : " The President of the United 
States is responsible," and I think he goes far to prove it. What order did the 
President of the United States utter December 27 before the treaty had been rati- 
fied, either by the United States or Spain, without authority of law, usurping power 
not then vested in him ? He ordered General Otis to take possession of the Pliilip- 
pine islands. He says: " The actual occupation and administration of tiie entire 
group of the Philippine islands becomes immediately necessary and a military gov- 
ernment heretofore maintained in the United States, in the city, harbor, and bay 
of Manila and the whole of the ceded territory." Mark the words, " the whole of 
the ceded territory " from which Spain had already been expelled bj^ the Fili- 
pinos themselves, with the exception of ports under the control of the Spanish 
navy. The advocates of expansion and of continuous possession assume that 
there are no Filipinos who have a sense of their own rights or any power to 
maintain them. What says your coadjutor. Rev. Clay MacCauley, on this matter? 
Is he a competent witness? Visiting these islands with a feeling bred of the 
missionary spirit that it was our duty to retain them, he found evidence on the 
spot which wholly change his oi^inion. He says : 

*' It should be known, to begin with, that tiie people of the Philippines are 
opposed to such annexation. By the Philipi>ine ' people' I do not mean the savage 
tribes of the hills of Luzon and of the remote islands. These tribes have always 
ignored or antagonized every other than their own inherited governments. They 
would, for an indefinite time, be as hostile to the rule of the United States as the 
North American Indians ever were. Constantly recurring conflicts with them 
would await us in our government of the islands, even were all otiier sources of 
opposition removed. The Philippine ' people ' are the hundreds of thousands of 
Christianized natives and persons of half or mixed caste who now occupy numerous 
cities, towns, and jDlantations ; who possess accumulated wealth ; conduct agricult- 
ure, own factories, and direct foreign commerce ; and who have attained to a consid- 
erable degree of education and culture in the arts and in the learned professions. 
These people have developed in large measure a jjolitical consciousness and 
ambition, and are now represented in the ' Philippine Republic' The proposed 
assumption of political sovereignty over them by the United States has recently 
become magnified to them as their greatest danger. By connuon iiupulse they 
are throughout united to oppose it, and unless their fear can be quieted, or their 
allegiance to American sovereignty secured by persuasion or reward, they will 
carry their opposition into open Avai'fare. Above all, they demand that the 
Government that directs their aft'airs shall have place thi'ough their own consent. 
They resent the agreements of Spain and the United States, or the acts of the 



10 CRIMINAL AGGRESSION: BY WHOM COMMITTED? 

American Congress, that dispose of them politically like so many pieces of chat- 
tel ijroperty. They claim to have now an established and systematized govern- 
ment, self chosen ; and evidently they have a large and well-armed army gathered 
to defend what they claim to be their freedom and independence. I have been 
informed on good authority that more than eighty thousand rifles have been im- 
ported by the Philippine insurgents during the past few months. Whatever 
might be done to win the Filipinos from allegiance to their ' republic,' certain 
it is that an arbitraiy act of annexation now would only arouse them to a struggle 
for freedom and national autonomy." 

Edifying spectacle it would be, that of this new republic of the far East 
striving to the death to defend itself fi-om a greed of conquest satiating itself 
upon it in the old republic of the West, "the land of the free and the home of 
the brave." 

" And next, the people of the United States should know that their fellow-citi- 
zens now in the Philippines, the soldiers and sailors of the American army and 
navy there, are generally opposed to or indifferent to the proj^osed annexation. 
With the most intelligent and thoughtful among them, antagonism is supported 
by judgment drawn from many considerations, some of which are here sum- 
marized. Surely it is worth the attention of the jjeople at home who are 
willing to commit our Government to an attempt at the annexation of the 
Philijipine islands, the fact that most of their fellow-citizens who have for months 
been dwellei'S in the islands, in contact with the native people there, and who 
have learned much of the various conditions there, — physical, social, and commer- 
cial, — should have grown increasingly oi)posed to the proposition to incorporate 
the Philii^isine j^eople into the American body politic." 

Aguinaldo has uttered a jjrotest. He gives the reason why the confidence of 
the Filipinos was destroyed by this unwarranted and unlawful order of the 
President of the United States before the treaty had been accepted, to take pos- 
session and administer the whole islands. Now, let any American jjut liimself in 
the jilace of an intelligent citizen of the Island of Luzon, what would be his con- 
ception of such an assumption of power over him backed by military force ? 
Would he not protest ? Witness the simple dignity of Aguinaldo's words : 

" I solemnly protest in the name of God, the root and fountain of all justice 
and of all right, and who has given to me the power to direct my dear brothers 
in the difficult work of regeneration, against this intrusion of the Government of 
the United States in the sovereignty of the islands. Equally I protest in the name 
of the Philippine peojile against this intrusion, because when they gave me their 
vote of confidence, electing me, though unworthy, as President of the nation, 
when they did this they imposed on me the duty to sustain to death their liberty 
and independence." 

That is the answer of the man whom Admiral Dewey found fit to place where 
he could assume the responsibility with wliich he is charged, and on whichever 
side the first shot was fired in the slaughter of these peoi)le the sole resi^onsibility 
for this act of criminal aggression rests upon the President of the United States. 

Yet the President says: "The treaty gave them to the United States. 
Could we have required less and done our duty ? Could we, after freeing the 
Filipinos from the dominion of Spain, have left them without Government and 
without power to jiroteet life and jjroperty, or to jierform the international obliga- 
tions essential to an independent State? " This question rests on false j^remises. 
They had a government. They had power to protect property. They have the 
power to enter into international relations, and they may yet be recognized and 
rightly recognized by other powers. 



CRIMINAL AGGRESSION: BT WHOM COMMITTED? 11 



The President says in speaking of other nations : " I>iil we ask their consent 
to liberate them from Spanish sovereignty or to enter Manihi Ijay and destroy tlie 
Spanish sea i)o\ver there ? We did not ask these ; we wtjre obeying a liiglier moral 
obligation which rested on us, and whieiidid not re(|uir(! anyijody's consent. We 
were doing our duty by them witli tlie consent of our own consciences and with the 
appi'oval of civilization." Are we now doing our duty by them by slaughtering 
them by the thousands, and by burning and shelling their villages without giving 
the women and children a chance to escape? What sort of a conscience warrants 
such acts — what civilized man approves? 

But witness the inconsistency in this speech. The President says : " Every 
present obligation has been met and fuUilled in the expulsion of Spanish sov- 
ereignty from their islands." True, and nearly the only simple and plain state- 
ment of a fact to be found in the whole speech. Then why not withdraw ? 
" During the j^rogi-ess of the war with Spain we could not ask their views. Nor 
can we now ask their consent." Why not? Ai'e not the people of the Island of 
Luzon entitled to be consulted ? Are they to be governed In' military force under 
an arbitrary order from a foreign ruler? They have an established form of gov- 
ernment. They have presented state papers of unequalled excellence and force 
which have been refused by the State Department, and rejected in terms of con- 
tempt by the military officers of the United States. 

The President says in excuse or palliation of this offence: "It is not a 
o-ood time for the liberator to submit important questions concerning liberty and 
government to the liberated while they are engaged in shooting down their res- 
cuers." Surely it may not be a good time to deal with them when they are Ijeing 
liberated by death and when our forces are rescuing them with repeating rifles, 
but why Avere these important questions not submitted to them before the Pres- 
ident on his own authority asserted an unlawful dominion over them ? 

The President having brought this shame upon us; having said that the 
flag should not come down; having asserted possession before the cession from 
Spain had been accepted by the Senate and before he had any rightful authority, 
thus inciting the Filipinos to resistance, now declares: "I do not intend to 
obtrude upon the duties of Congress or seek to anticipate or forestall its action. 
I only say that the treaty of peace, honorably secured, having been ratified by 
the United States, and, as we confidently expect, shortly to be ratified in Spain, 
Congress will have the power, and I am sure the purpose, to do what in good 
morals is right and just and humane for these peoples in distant seas." Having 
found himself incapable of meeting the duties and responsibilities of his posi- 
tion, he is now shifting upon Congress the dreadful penalties of his own inca- 
pacity. Again: "Until the treaty Avas ratified or rejected the Executive 
Department of this Government could only preserve the peace and protect life 
and property. That treaty now commits the free and enfranchised Filipinos 
to the guiding hand and the liberalizing influences, the generous sympathies, the 
uplifting education, not of their American masters, but of their American 
emancipators." 

Why did he assert dominion before the treaty was ratified ? Why oppress in 
the name of enfranchisement ? 

Enfranchised, indeed, under the guiding hand and liberalizing influences of 
repeating rifles, the uplifting education of dynamite guns, turned against them 
by armed forces ordered to govern them without their consent. 

Again the President says : " I know no one at this hour who is wise enough 
or sufficiently informed to determine what form of government will best subserve 
their interests and our interests, their and our well-being," thus admitting inca- 
pacity. 



12 CRIMINAL AGGRESSION : BY WII03I COMMITTED? 

He goes on to declare : " Until Congress shall direct otherwise it will be the 
duty of the Executive to possess and hold the Philippines" (we hold ten miles 
square, or less, from a part of which we have retreated), " giving to the people 
thereof peace and order, and beneficent government, affording them every 
opportunity to prosecute their lawful jjui'suits, encouraging them in thrift and 
industry, making them feel and know that we are their friends, not their enemies, 
that their good is our aim, that their welfare is our welfare, but that neither their 
aspirations nor ours can be realized imtil our authority is acknowledged and 
unquestioned." 

If it were not for the atrocities which have been committed in the name of 
duty, peace, and order, thei'e would be something grotesque in the absurdity of 
such i^latitudes spoken by the President before the reverberation of the guns dis- 
charged in tlie slaughter of the Filipinos have ceased to echo around the world to 
the dishonor of this country. 

But still we will welcome the President to the ranks of the Anti-Imperialist 
League if we can trust his words: " No imperial designs lurk in the American 
mind. They are alien to American sentiment, thought, and purpose. Our 
priceless principles undergo no change under a tropical sun. They go Avith 
the flag. If in the years of the future they are established in government under 
law and libertj^ who will regret our perils and sacrifices ? " But if these people 
are now in the present established in law and capable of maintaining liberty, as 
they have proved themselves to be, who will not regi'et the slaughter which we 
have inflicted upon them ? Will not the mothers of tlie land regret the loss of 
their sons, now on the way to or now in Manila, only beginning to be exposed to 
worse dangers than the resistance of the Filii^inos under the ghastly conditions 
of the worst of tropical climates in the rainj- season ? In an aggressive cam- 
paign away from the sea we may fear that of the 25,000 men Avho have been 
despatched to Manila, if kept there three or four months longer, not one-half will 
ever see their native land again ; we may fear that neai-ly all of the other half 
who may return will come back impaired in health and strength. The evidence 
of these dangers is conclusive. The facts disclosed by the records of the British, 
French, and Dutch armies almost prove that such will be the fate that we are 
bringing upon the children of Americans. I know no men whose names will 
go down among the mothers of the land, even in the near future, subject to 
gi-eater execration than the names of the men who have brought this act of crim- 
inal aggression upon the nation. 

Professor Worcester states the only conditions under which white men may 
be able to retain their health and strength in the Philippine islands in the follow- 
ing terms: "Briefly stated the facts are as follows: If one is permanently situ- 
ated in a good locality where he can secure suitable food and good drinking 
water; if he is scrupulously careful as to his diet, avoids excesses of all kinds, 
keeps out of the sun in the middle of the day, and refrains from severe and 
long continued physical exertion, he is likely to remain well, always supposing 
that he is fortunate enough to escape malarial infection.*' 

If the regular army of the United States is stationed in the Philippine 
islands or in Cuba, and kept there six months, it is practically cei'tain that after 
that term has elapsed there will be no regular army of the United States in exist- 
ence capable of any eftectual service even on the part of the survivors. When 
the facts become known voluntary enlistments will cease, and the act of criminal 
aggression can only be continued by a forced enlistment under a draft. 

Let there be no misapprehension in this matter. We can extend our admira- 
tion to our army and navy ; to the privates and most of the otScers of our 
army and to the oflicers of the navy as well as the j^rivates. War has not ceased 



CRIMINAL AGGRESSION: liV H7/O.U (OM M III l:l> • 13 



among men and how soon it will cease none can tell. Even President Cleveland 

thought it might become necossary to make forceful intervention in the Islaiul 
of Cuba. When the war was prematurely entered upon it found our navy 
governed by the civil-service rules, thoroughl}' well organized, the right nn-ii 
in the right places and no power or inlluence of any Representative or Senator 
capable of moving the authoi'ities of the navy, or of putting men in their places 
unqualified for the positions. 

At the Navy Department there were no Senators or iteprc-sentalivcs in the 
lobby, no seekers for place and position around the doors. Everything was done 
with eftective energy, and the work of the navy bears witness to the civil-service 
rules by which it has been governeil. But when we give regard to the A\'ar De- 
partment, there the lobbies were filled ; there political influence was pai-amount. 
There men who were Avanted to take important places in the Commissary De- 
partment, fully qualified, were rejected, and incapable persons put in at the 
instance of politicians. And what did we get? We brought togetlier an army 
under conditions which rendered it almost incapable of effective service. One of 
the members of the Commission on the conduct of the war said to me that the 
conditions at Tampa were almost those of a mob without head or leader. In 
some way the line officers got the troops over the sea. There they blundered into 
a direct attack upon Santiago, where the bravery of the troops and the incapacity 
of the enemy saved them from a great disaster. Men who knew the conditions 
allege that had the officers in command been willing to wait for the cooperation 
of the navy there was an easy jjlace to land a few miles away, free of fortifica- 
tion, from which a railway leads, by which all our troops could have moved to 
the rear of the Santiago forts where, under the pi'otection of the navy, the defences 
could have been turned, and a lai'ge part of the risk might have been avoided. 

Although giving credit to the Navy Department and its chief, when I read 
the following paragraph closing the speech of the Secretary in support of the 
action of his chief: "Is not that the statesmanship of the great Master Avho 
limited not His mission or that of His disciples to His own chosen people, but 
proclaimed that His gospel should be preached in all the world unto all nations, 
that greatest Statesman of all time, Jesus Christ," it seemed to me blasphemy 
to cite the authority of Jesus Christ in justification of the slaughter of the Fili- 
pinos. I can conceive of nothing more sacrilegious than that citation. When 
I was speaking the other night to the chiefs of the labor organizations wlio are 
moved most deeply in this matter I said. If that is Christianity you may call me 
Infidel or call me Pagan, but it is not; it is servile adulation in profane terms. 

The advocates of aggressive expansion tell us that we have no alternative, 
but when our alternative is presented he w'ho presents it is called a visionary. 
There is an alternative and everything is propitious for its adoption. The effort 
has been made by the jingoes to get up public demand for maintaining possession 
or annexing these islands by alleging danger of seizure by (Germany or France. 
They do not dare to impute such purpose to Great Britain. Any such intention 
has been repudiated by the Ministry of Germany. It is denied l)y our ambassa- 
dor, Andrew D. White, and it is a false imputation made for an evil purpose. 
France is struggling to surmount the cost of lives and money in the tropical 
colonies now^ held, and wants no more. 

What, then, are the facts about the Philippine islands. No one wants them. 
No one wants to assume the expense, danger, and cost of subiluingand governing 
them. But no one nation wants the other to make a base of ofYence against any 
other nation. Then why not neutralize them ? We can lend the Fdipinos men 
like Sir Robert Hart of England, or my former townsman, E. B. Drew, who Avas 
formerly a high-school teacher in Brookline. These two men are now adminis- 



14 CRIMINAL AGGRESSION : BY WHOM COMMITTED? 

tering the customs of China. Lord Cromer administers the affairs of Egypt under 
the Khedive. The Philippines may be neutralized as Belgium is neutralized ; as 
Switzerland is neutralized ; as the Congo Free State is neutralized. Is not every- 
thing propitious? President McKinley has the opportunity to make himself a 
record in history as the great man of the century could he comprehend his true 
mission and take advantage of the existing conditions. All nations to have their 
coaling stations ; all nations to land their cables ; all to have equal rights and 
no hostile shots to be fired upon the land, and no contest ujjon the waters thereof. 
We can make the Philippine islands the sanctuary of commerce ; we can aid 
the inhabitants to bi ing order out of chaos ; we can help them work out their own 
national salvation ; and joined with the Czar we can take the first measures for 
abating the hell of war u2)on the earth. 

" Can these things come to pass ? 
Nay, if it be, alas, a vision ! 
Still let us sleep and dream it true ; 
Or, sane and broad awake. 
For its great sound and sake 
Take it and make it earth's, 
And peace ensue." 

I have remarked that whenever right-minded men make an eft'ort to establish 
peace upon earth and good-will among nations those who are imbued with the 
military spirit or with the survival of the brute element in man cry. Visionary ! 
These are the men who to-day, on this twenty-second of February, the birthday of 
Washington, are trying to put him in contempt by casting ridicule on his farewell 
address as having no relation to jDresent times. Was he not a soldier? Did he 
not fight to redeem his countrymen from oppression, and did he not show when 
the conflict was ended that in him there was no survival of the brute element, 
which actuates many of the advocates of expansion ? Did he not declare and 
enforce the principles of peace ? It is not only expansion, but militarism that is 
upon us, but that evil once recognized has already been suppressed. The rising 
tide of popular opinion among workingmen, among farmers, among clergymen, 
and among all thoughtful men who can rightfully claim to be good citizens, will 
resist criminal aggression and will yet com^jel the Congress and the Executive 
of the nation to remedy the wrongs which have been inflicted upon these people. 
Then will be found the easy way to do right ; then the present Executive may 
open that way by neutralizing the PhiliiDpine islands and making them the 
sanctuary of commerce. The opponents of criminal aggression will then join 
in saving the President from the execration which may rest upon him and his 
supporters when the death rate in our army in the tropics begins to be recorded, 
unless this great wrong is quickly righted. If that right way is taken then 
the name of William McKinley may yet go down in history, when all the evils 
of the present have been buried in the remote past, among the great names of 
the benefactors of the world. 

I have thus endeavored to jjut before you, members of the clergy, a full and 
frank statement of our present conditions, without fear or favor. When the 
opponents of expansion first entered upon the work they seemed to be few. 
Many now active and earnestly working with us then seemed to fear that the 
nation had been so far committed that there Avas no way out. All that has 
changed. Congress has refused to warrant a permanently large standing army, 
and is beginning to feel the influence of the sober second thought of the people 
giving them a warning no longer to commit criminal aggression. We now 
call upon the clergy to join in this righteous cause, and to aid us with their 
earnest work. 

EDWARD ATKINSON. 



CRIMINAL AGGRESSION : BY \niOM COMMITTFJ) 



APPENDIX. 



In order to support the statements submitted in tlie foregoing treatise by 
adequate proofs I have endeavored to get a copy of Senate Document No. 62, 
containing the evidence and information submitted by the President with the 
treaty of peace, — a document of five hundred pages. Hut liaviiig as yet failed 
to secure a copy, I may rightly make citations from this document wiiich were 
submitted by lion. Henry U. Johnson and by Hon. Rice A. Pierce in their 
speeches in the House of Representatives. 

In support of the right of the Filipinos to self-government Mr. Johnson said, 
" Are you aware that .Admiral Dewey made use of this language in his communication 
to the Secretary of the Navy on the 29th of last August ? — 

" The population of Luzon is reported to be something over 3,000,000, mostly natives. These 
are gentle, docile, and, under just laws and with the benefits of popular education, would soon 
make good citizens. 

" In a telegram sent to the department June 23 I expressed the opinion that these people 
are far superior in their intelligence, and more capable of self-government, than the natives of 
Cuba, and I am familiar with both races. Further intercourse with them has confirmed me in 
this opinion." 

Mr. Johnson — 

Has it escaped your notice that the United States Consul-General at Hong Kong, 
China, made use of the following language in his communication to Mr. Moore of the 
Department of State? — 

I consider the forty or fifty Philippine leaders, with whose fortunes I have been very 
closely connected, both the superiors of the Malays and the Cubans. Aguinaldo, Agoncilla, 
and Sandico are all men who would all be leaders in their separate departments in any country. 

In conclusion I wish to put myself on I'ecord as stating that the insurgent government of 
the Philippine islands cannot be dealt with as though they were North American Indians, will- 
ing to be moved from one reservation to another at the whim of their masters. If the United 
States decides not to retain the Philippine islands its 10,000,000 people will demand indepen- 
dence, and the attempt of any foreign nation to obtain territory or coaling stations will be 
resisted with the same spirit with which they fought the Spaniards. 

In the very able speech of Hon. Rice A. Pierce many citations are given. 
He said, " And now we come to the consideration of the permanent holding of 
the Philippine islands, to do which General Whittier, in his testimony before 
the Paris Commission, said : 

" If we attempt the unwise thing of ignoring the natives an army of 50,000 men will be none 
too small. — Senate Doc., No. 62, part 1, page 508." 

In reply to the charge that Sefior Aguinaldo had been bribed Ijy Spain to 
leave the islands and had appropriated the money Mr. Pierce refers to the fact 
that on the 24rth day of May, 1898, Mr. Oscar F. Williams, United States Consul 
to Manila, telegraphed to the Secretary of State, as follows : 

To-day I executed a power of attorney wherel)y Aguinalilo releases to his attorneys, in 
fact $400,000 now in bank in Hong Kong, so that the money can pay for 3,000 stands of arms 
bought there and expected here to-morrow. 

Again Mr. Pierce recites from Document 62 : 

On the 4th of July, 1898, Gen. Thomas M. Anderson, commanding the United 
States troops at Cavite, addressed a letter to Senor Don Eniilo Aguinaldo, commanding 
the Philippine forces at the same place, in which he said (page 390) : 

General : 1 have the honor to inform you that the United States of America, whose land 
forces I have the honor to command in this vicinity, being at war with the kingdom of Spain, 
has entire sympathy and most friendly sentiments for the native people of the Philippine islands. 



16 CRIMINAL AGGBESSION : BY WHOM COMMITTED? 

For these reasons I desire to have most amicable relations with you, and to have you and 
your people cooperate with us in the military operations against the Spanish forces. 

To this Aguinaldo made an earnest and instant response, which was acknowledged 
by General Anderson in a note dated July 6, in which, after informing Aguinaldo that 
large reenforeements were expected from the United States, for whom more space 
would be required for camps and storehouses, he said (page 391) : 

For this I would like to have your Excellency's advice and cooperation, as you are best 
acquainted with tlie resources of this country. 

He added that they did not intend to remain inactive, but to move promptly 

" against our common enemy." 

Referring to the Spaniards' fear of the Filipinos, General Whittier said (page 491) : 
I think the Captain-General was much frightened. He reportetl in great trepidation that 

the insurgents were coming into tlie city, and I said that I knew that that was impossible, 

because such precautions had been taken as rendered it so. 

General Whittier said, in answer to a question put by Senator Gray (page 492) : 
They are somewhat undersized, are fairly good in appearance, are brave, will stand any 
amount of hunger and hardship, and, well led, would be very good soldiers. 

Speaking of their services in "driving the Spaniards from Cavite, twenty odd 
miles into the defences of Manila," General Whittier said (page 499) : 

All the success was on the natives' side, and the Spaniards surrendered between 7,000 
and 8,000 men well armed, plenty of ammunition, and in good physical condition. The excuse 
of the latter may be that their enemy was in small bands ; but they never captured one of these, 
and the small bands drove them to their walls. 

The most conclusive evidence, however, of a complete understanding of the 
several military and naval officers of the United States in this matter is to be found 
in the report of Consul Wildman, which was brought into the debate as follows : 

Mr. PiEKCE, of Tennessee — 

Consul Wildman states, and the records sliow it, that openly in the Spanish Cortes 
General Rivera, who was the Spanish Governor-General, stated that of the money that 
was to be paid only $400,000 of it, and that in Mexican dollars, was paid, when they 
had to pay over $1,000,000; that he did not propose to carry out what was stipulated 
at the time. 

In 1897 Aguinaldo, Agoncillo, and other leaders of the Philippines agreed to leave 
the island, and that certain civil reforms were to be entered upon, but as Rivera says 
himself, he did not propose to carry them out, and he did not propose to pay any 
of the money ; and this is what the Consul at Hong Kong says, and I will read what he 
says, as I do not wish to state it myself. Here is what Consul Wildman says : 

Consulate of the United States, 

Hong Kong, July 18, 1898. 

There has been a systematic attempt to blacken the name of Aguinaldo and his cabinet on 
account of the questionable terms of their surrender to Spanish forces a year ago tliis month. It has 
been said that they sold their country for gold ; but this has been conclusively disproved, not only 
by their own statements, but by the speech of the late Governor-General Rivera in the Spanish 
Senate, June 11, 1898. lie said that Aguinaldo undertook to submit if the Spanish government 
would give a certain sum to the widows and orphans of the insurgents. He then admits that 
only a tenth part of this sum was ever given to Aguinaldo, and tliat the other promises made he 
did not find it expedient to keep. 

I was in Hong Kong September, 1897, when Aguinaldo and his leaders arrived under con- 
tract with the Spanish Government. They waited until the first of November for the payment 
of the promised money and the fulfilment of the promised reforms. Only $400,000, Mexican, 
was ever placed to their credit in the banks, and on the third of November Mr. F. Agoncillo, 
late minister of foreign affairs in Aguinaldo's cabinet, called upon me and made a proposal, 
which I transmitted to tlie State Department in ray despatch No. 19, dated Nov. 3, 1897. 

In reply the State Department instructed me " to courteously decline to communicate with 
the department fiu-ther regarding the alleged mission." I obeyed these instructions to the letter 



CRIMINAL AGGRESSION: BY WHOM COMMITTED? 17 



until the breaking out of the \v;ir, when, after consultation with Admiral Dewey, I received a 
delegation from the insurgent junta, and they hound themselves to obey all laws of civilized 
warfare, and to place themselves absolutely undei- the orders of Admiral Uewey if they were 
permitted to return to Manila. At tliis time their jiresident, Aguiualdo, was in Singapore 
negotiating, through Consul-( Jeneral Pratt, with Admiral Dewey for his return. 

On April 27, in company with Consul (). F. Williams, we received another delegation, com- 
posed of Seuor Sandico, Jose Maria Basa, Tomas Mascardo, Lorenzo Ij. Zialcita, .Viidres E. 
Ciarchitorcna, Manuel Malvar, Mariano Llanza, Salvatore Estrella. We agreed, on !>elialf of 
Dewey, to allow two of their number to accompany the tlect to Manila. Consequently, on the 
same day, I took iu the tug " Fame "Alizandrino and (iarchitorena, aci'oiupanicd l)y Mr. Sandico, 
to the " Olympia," in Mir's Bay. On .May 2 Aguiualdo arrived in Hong Kong and immediately 
called on me. 

It was May 16th before I could obtain permission from Admiral Dewey to allow Aguinaldo 
to go by the United States ship " McCulloch," and I put him aboard in the night so as to save 
any complications with the local government. Immediately on the arrival of Aguinaldo at 
Cavite he issued a proclamation, which I had outlined for him before he left, forbidding pillage, 
and making it a criminal otfence to maltreat neutrals. He, of course, organized a government 
of which he was dictator, an absolutely necessary step if he hoped to maintain control over the 
natives, and from that date until the present time he has been uninterruptedly successful in the 
tield, and dignified and just at the head of his government. 

In conclusion, I wish to put myself on record as stating that the insurgent government of 
the Philippine islands cannot be dealt with as thougli they were North American Indians, willing 
to be moved from one reservation to another at the whim of their masters. If the United States 
decides not to retain the Philippine islands its 10,000,000 people will demand independence, and 
the attempt of any foreign nation to obtain territory or coaling stations will be resisted with the 
same spirit with which they fought the Spaniards. 

I have the honor, etc. 

PiOUNSEVELLE WiLDMAN, 

Consul- General. 

Mv. Pierce — 

And that money Aguinaldo, as shown by Mr. Williams, Consul of the United 
States, has turned over to buy arms. He executed a power of attorney and turned 
it over to him, that he might pay for the arras that had been purchased. I repeat 
here that the arms came under American control, and were turned over througii Amer- 
can officials to Aguinaldo to arm the natives in their fight against the Spaniards, to aid 
the Americans in the capture of Manila. (Applause.) We have this plain letter. It 
is not manufactured by me. We see here the same policy pursued by gentlemen on 
the other side of the House to carry out the policy of Mr. McKinley. 

Finally, in support of the right of the Filipinos Mr. Pierce quotes Admiral 
Dewey in the following terms : 

These people, the Filipinos, are far superior in their intelligence and more capable of 
self-government than the natives of Cuba, and I am familiar with both races. 

Closing as follows : 

And yet we propose to give a free government to the Island of Cuba, to the 
natives of Cuba; and George Dewey, a man soon to become an Admiral, a title which 
he richly merits and deserves, says these natives of the Philippine islands are superior 
to the natives of Cuba. Congress has said that the natives of Cuba should be free. 
What the President said to the Filipinos was given to them through their press. 

The Filipinos rendered every assistance that they could to aid the United States. 
They drove the Spaniards into their walled city of Manila, held all the outer lines and 
fortifications, cut off the supplies, cut off the food and water, and rendered assistance 
to the American army which would have made it impossible for them without that assist- 
ance to have taken the Spanish army, for if it had not been for .Vguinaldo's army the 
Spaniards could have retreated from the city of ^lanila and beyond the reach of 
Dewey's guns. 

These citations are from the official document prepared in the office of the 
Secretary of State and submitted to Congress by President William McKinley 



18 CRIMINAL AGGRESSION: BY WHOM COMMITTED? 

with the treaty of peace. It is apparent that the several military and naval 
officers of the United States acted upon their faith on the declaration of the Presi- 
dent when he announced that he did not contemplate " forcible annexation, "which 
by our code of morality he declared would be "criminal aggression." 

It, therefore, appears that carefully refraining from any act outside their law- 
ful functions, Commodore Dewey, General Anderson, Consul-General Smith 
of Singapore, and Consul Wildman of Hong Kong, secured the cooperation of 
Aguinaldo, promoted his return in a government vessel to Manila, supplied him 
and his forces with arms taken from the Spaniards, and invited his cooperation 
in the common undertaking to remove the oppressive rule of Spain fi'om the 
PhilijDpine islands in order that the people might enjoj' liberty. The President 
of the United States, having knowledge of all these facts, then turns back on his 
declaration, gives orders without authority of law, under an assumed power, to 
General Otis to take possession and administer the government of the Philippine 
islands. 

This bald statement of the facts of the case calls for no woi'ds. The question 
before the country now is how to reraed}^ this wrong and how to remove from 
the Philippine islands the oppression which has been substituted for that of Spain 
with the least delay and tho least humiliation. 

At the very time when the foregoing text was being put in type comes the 
first information yet received by mail of which the public has any knowledge, in 
regard to the condition of affairs at the time and in the weeks preceding the 
slaughter of the Filipinos by our army, from a competent observer who was on 
the spot. 

Many i-umors have been in circulation, based on private letters in regard to 
the origin of that attack, but in the following letter of Rev. Claj' MacCauley, 
whose evidence has been cited in the body of this pamphlet, we begin to get evi- 
dence from an independent source not like that over the telegraph line under 
Government censorship ; 

[Special Correspondence of the Transcript.\ 

Tokyo, Japan, February 9. 

If it be true, as telegraphed by " Reuter" this morning, that "the Washington 
cabinet has decided on a vigorous oflfensive attack on Iloilo and on an endeavor to cap- 
ture the Fihpino government of Mololos," then, so it seems to me, the greatest mistake 
yet made by the present Administration and one of the least justifiable wrongs in 
American political history have been committed and have brought with them their 
penalty. It may be, now that the Filipino insurgents have attacked our army and 
killed some of our soldiers, that there is no way left for our Government but that of 
offensive war and an attempted conquest of the Philippine islands. But, even under 
this necessity, I cannot help remembering that had the American Government been 
generous or wise through the months just passed no assault by a Filipino army would 
have been made upon the soldiers of the United States, and no such dreadful future 
as that now probably awaiting these people would have confronted them. Ignorance 
and reckless aggressiveness in high places in America and too prosaic an obedience, a 
temperamental fault and mingled timidity and inability in the administrative authorities 
at Manila, will in time be known as the chief occasions of this terrible calamity. I do 
not accuse without reasons. 

At the first, in May last, the Filipino insurgents were encouraged by the American 
authorities in their renewed hostility to the Spaniards. They were ready then to give 
any and full allegiance to the United States. At the downfall of Manila no enthusiasm 
could be greater from a people than that of the Filipinos for the Americans. What at 
that time were the supreme directions from Washington? " Have no embarrassing re- 
lations with the insurgents ; make no compromising promises ; be careful that the way 



CHIMIN AL AGGRESSION: BY WHOM COMMITTED/ 19 



for the UniU'd States be clear into tin- future. ' lvf[,'ulaii()n^ that were doulitlcHS 
wise and, under tlie circninstances, imperative. But tiow wen- they applied? In the 
answer to this question lies in largest part the explanation of the strugfjh- just he^'un. 
Some evil fate seems to have guided the movement step l>y stej* from its insignificant 
beginnings to its present portentous issues. Clearly the United States authorities had 
no right in August last or since then, even to to-day, to oflFer to the eager Kilipinos 
any definite policy for the direction of their mutual relations. But, clearly, too, 
these authorities had not only right, but they were in duty bound not to let the Filipinos 
misunderstand them or their country during the critical progress of events. Under the 
circumstances mutual confidence, sympathy, and patience were imperative. It was 
above all needed that the representatives in Manila of the United States Government 
should go to these people, just emancipated from Spanish rule, and with kind sympathy 
tell them until they understood the facts without doubt that, more than anything else, 
both peoples must wait for the law's delays, for a treaty of peace, for ratification of the 
treaty, and then for a definite policy that should direct them in the future. In a way 
these things were known l)y and made known to the Filipinos. But that was not enough. 
So fearful were the American authorities that the future might be embarrassed by their 
words or acts that very soon after the capture of Manila not only had official inter- 
course with the insurgent leaders become almost nil, and what there was of it almost 
wholly mandatory on the part of the Americans, but the social intercourse also that had 
begun in the most cordial ways was rapidly lessened and constrained. Then, it is true 
that so far as movements were made by the Americans either in America or the Philip- 
pines appearances more and more indicated that the United States Government was more 
and more tending to assume the sovereignty of the islands. Whether this assumption 
was to be for a protectorate or for incorporation of the Philippines into the American 
body politic was not evident, and no one responsible for his opinions offered to talk the 
matter over with the leaders of the Philippine republic, then coming into life. 

Through the summer and the early autumn the Filipino leaders were not averse 
to annexation to the United States. Indeed, I am under the impression that they at the 
first looked for and wished for union with the American republic. And though I am 
not in favor of the annexation of these far-away lands to the United States, I am confi- 
dent that until towards the close of the year any politic representative of our govern- 
ment at Manila could have enrolled Aguinaldo and his friends among the most ardent 
supporters of the proposed annexation. Our whole attitude and action, however, seemed 
determined towards alienation and not friendship. The Filipino leaders were, from 
almost the first, repelled and ignored. Hardly could men have set about in a better 
way to arouse resentment, suspicion, anger, and rebellion than the men in charge of 
the administration of American interests in Manila. 

The Filipinos were made to feel that Americans considered them not worth either 
political or social consideration. Driven back upon themselves, their soldiers treated 
with contempt, their wishes not listened to or respected, if heard, told nothing of our 
Government's ultimate desires or purposes, or, if told, left without judicious, sympa- 
thetic explanations of the course of events in Washington, — the Filipinos gradually 
accepted their isolation, organized their government more and more thoroughly, and 
began to import arms and ammunition for their own support and defence. I cannot 
blame them for having done this. They could so easily have been retained as our allies 
and friends. A sympathizer, a conciliator, a politician, in the good sense of the word, 
could have kept them with him step by step, while the administration at Washington 
was coming to a consciousness of its own wishes and aims. But we let them go ; we let 
them misunderstand us, or we did not try to keep them with us as we came to under- 
stand ourselves better. On our own authorities, not on the Filipinos, falls the blame 
that the Filipinos changed from friends to enemies, and at last turned towards us in the 
trenches at Manila a hostile front. A more lamentable series of lost opportunities, of 
neglected openings for having one's own way, of deliberate manufacture of enemies, it 
would be difficult to find in the history of nations. I am not alone in this judgment. 
Could impartial observers from among foreigners, long resident in Manila, be heard. 



20 CRIMINAL AGGRESSION: BY WHOM COMMITTED* 



dared intelligent American officers and soldiers at Manila speak, could Aguinaldo and 
his friends be believed, my charge would not stand without ample support. 

Our own Government and the administrative authorities at Manila who acted for 
the home Government, both in ignorance and with recklessness, cast aside again and 
again the very agencies that would have brought about the end that the annexationists 
have most sought. Through the mistake of not having had the right men in the re- 
sponsible places, and through the excessive caution attending a policy in the process of 
formation at Washington, the Americans have lost the allegiance and incurred the hostil- 
ity of a whole people. The Filipinos once idealized the United States. They were 
ready to do our bidding to the utmost, had we but used the wands of sympathy and 
confidence. And now here we are at bayonet points, and the American Government has 
decided to attempt the " capture of the Filipinos' government at Malolos." It will be 
doubtless the policy of the imperialist press now to tell the American people that the 
Filipinos are false to their promises of last year ; are treacherous ; not fit for self-gov- 
ernment and should be suppressed, and that this war should be carried to its deadly end. 
Very well ! Let all the charges of this kind be true, the fact yet remains that our own 
bungling rule in Manila has impelled them to treachery and rebellion. But the pity of 
it, when another record was so easy to make ! Had a man of the President's own 
temperament been in command at Manila, notwithstanding the caution of the uncertain 
yet aggressive Washington Administration, the new year, I feel sure, would have opened 
with the " Filipino Republic," anxious to be made an integral part of the great republic 
of the West. 

Were nations amenable to repentance and reform, sometliing might yet be done to 
remedy this great mistake and wrong. But history, I fear, justifies no hope for such 
change. Rather does the present calamity, if this morning's telegram tells the truth, 
tempt one to say : Let us as a nation let allpretence at philanthropy' and national justice 
go. Let us admit that the Anglo-Saxon in America as well as in Europe is a ravening 
beast still. He fought for liberty and independence a hundred years ago, but he fought 
not for the " glittering generalities " of the Declaration of Independence, — the prin- 
ciple of human freedom, — but for his own life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 
Shall this new war in the Philippines be proclaimed a war of righteousness, a war for 
the sake of humanity? No! it is the penalty of our own incompetence and folly. I 
would not if I CDuld, make the Philippines a part of the United States. Sooner or 
later out of such union would come resentment, revenge, and rebellion, even could it 
have been brought about in peace and of good will. But now, to make of this people 
our conquered subjects when they might at least have been made friendly fellow-citi- 
zens, what shame to America, what a penalty to pay for ignorance and impotence! 

Clay MacCauley. 

With this, the case as it now stands is submitted to the people of this 
country. 

The first edition of mj' treatise on The Cost of a National Crime and 
The Hell of War was dedicated to the President of the United States, in the 
hope that he would meet the responsibility so as to justify the quotation from 
Milton : 

" Oh, yet a nobler task awaits thy hand 
(For what can war but endless war still breed?) 
Till truth and right from violence be freed, 
And public faith clear'd from the shameful brand 
Of public fraud ! " 

The President has failed. It now remains for every citizen to demand that 
oiu" public faith shall be cleared from the shameful brand of public fraud. 

uiBKHKY iJ»:. .V,^,";?^.!*.!^,^^,, EDWARD ATKINSON. 

March 8, 1899. 




013 744 698 



